How Do I Loathe Thee?
by TheGeekinPink
Summary: AU. Finn Hudson, former quarterback for the McKinley high Titans, had a fool proof plan to regain his popularity back. He would woo head cheerio Rachel Berry and get her to fall in love with him. With the help of the school's punk, Quinn Fabray, Finn couldn't imagine his plan not working out. But what happens when the girl he's trying to win over falls for the girl helping him?
1. Fall From Grace

Finn spits into his hand before running it through his freshly cut, short brown hair. He takes the slightly bloodied cotton ball rested near his mole and throws it on the floor of his beat up Camry. He had cut himself shaving the peach fuzz off of his sideburns this morning, wanting to look good for the first day of school. Or as he likes to call it the beginning of the best two years of his high school career. Looking like the survival dude who drinks his own pee, wasn't the best way to get anywhere with Rachel, that's for he decided to try his luck shaving, hoping he wouldn't cut his sideburns off like every other time he tried shaving . Unfortunately for him, luck was just not on his side that morning and he cut his sideburn too low,yet again, and ended up nicking himself. A little shaving accident was not going to stop Finn Hudson from starting off his junior year with a bang.

He looks at himself in the mirror one more time and gives himself one of his signature sideways smirks, satisfied with the way he looks. He steps out of the beat up car and closes the door hard, causing the car to rattle and the left side mirror to fall off. He scrambles on the ground to pick it up before looking around to see if anyone was watching. Fortunately for him, the parking lot was mostly deserted with the exception of the three people that were standing by the dumpster. They were the stoner kids who got their buzz in before class would start and would mostly like be unconscious for most of the day. He slips the mirror in the front zipper of his backpack before adjusting his letterman again and walks up to the double doors of the school.

He stops by the double doors and gives himself one last pep talk before heading inside.

_Hudson, dude, you can do this. This is your year, man. Now go in there and kick some ass!_

Satisfied, he opens one of the doors with his head held high and the best smile on his face.

As he walks into the building, Finn notices that people are literally falling out of the hallways. Everyone was divided into their little cliques by the past their prime dingy brown lockers. The fresh meat or freshmen had their maps clutched in their hands like their lives depended on it.

The Cheerios, mainly Santana, were the first people that Finn came in contact to on the way to his locker. She was the second string captain of the nationally decorated squad, and the tall blond girl who never seemed to leave Santana's side, he thinks her name is Brittany, and a couple of unknown lackeys, a short red head standing right next to Santana, while the tall brunette stood by Brittany. They were probably sophomores who were trying to get into the good graces of the feisty second in command by doing her bidding.

They all held big gulp cups in their hands, while they stared down at that chick who always wore black and had blue streaks in her hair and had a stutter, Tina or something, it doesn't really matter. Tina looked like she was about to wet herself in the hallway with the way that Santana was staring down at her menacingly with one hand on her other two minus Brittany followed suit and stood in the same position. While Brittany, who had one arm looped in with the co captain smiled down at Tina, gleefully in her own world The cheerleader then pointed down to her white shoes.

"Hey stutters, can't you watch where or are you blind too? Do you know how much these shoes cost me?" she says, looking down at Tina expectedly.

Tina, too afraid to look the other girl in the eye, which he doesn't blame her for because Santana can be really scary when she's pissed, bubblers out something incoherently. The cheerleader looks down at the girl with her eyes slit and tries to penetrate the girl with her gaze. Finn had a chill run down his spine just looking at what the other girl was doing.

"Yeah, I don't have all day to wait on you Marilyn Manson. You either tell me now or so help me, not only will I go all Lima heights on your ass, I'll give you a slushy shower so bad that you'll remember to keep your hideous away from my shoes." she says as she crosses her arms.

Finn thought that now would be a good time to make his presence known to the cheerios. He figured he would give this Tina chick a break since it was the first day of school and all. And besides, he didn't want any slushy to get on his new clothes. He walks up to Santana and taps her on the shoulder.

"Hey Santana, how's it going?" he said cheerfully, smile in place.

Santana turned around slowly and gave him a tight smile. It wasn't just any tight smile, like she was angry or anything. It was the kind of smile that his neighbor's cat gave him two summers ago when he ate the birds that stayed in the bird house that he and his mom had just put up, before walking away. In hindsight, he should have known there was something wrong then. Brittany and the other two cheerleaders turn around and face him. Brittany rushes up to him and gives him a short hug. He thought it was weird that Brittany had her thumb stuck up, but paid no attention to it at all.

"Why hello, Frankenteen, long time no see? My summer has been fantastic. How about you? Run away from any State Championship football games lately?" she says as the other girls giggled. Finn's face flushed a bright red as he remembered the game from last year.

_They were in the final quarter of the game with the score tied up with only two minutes to score. McKinley had possession of the ball and they only needed to get the ball to Puckerman, the running back and Finn's best friend down the field in order to score a touchdown. Whenever Finn got nervous, he got sort of excited. He would do his mail man chants to calm him down, but depending on the situation they would sometimes fail. Before they were about to make the play, one of the cheerleaders from Carmel had been hitting on him. And she happened to be pretty, hot and well endowed in all the right places. He swore every time she did a split, she looked straight at him. _

_Right before he was going to hike the ball, she smiled and gave him a little good luck wink. The walls around him began to close in and he started sweating a lot more than he had before. His face was so red that Coach Tanaka thought there was something wrong with him and almost pulled him for Chang. But he told coach that he would be fine. As he yelled out the hike, the friction in his pants grew more and it got worse as she pouted her lips together him and blew a kiss towards him. He felt the ball begin to slip from his hands and as Carmel and McKinley broke apart from the hike, the ball fumbled out of his hands and onto the ground. Both teams were fighting like rabid animals until finally the ball was back in possession, to Carmel. _

_As Finn rushes off the field, with his hands between his crotch, he saw the Carmel cheerleader over on their side, laughing at him with her friends. And coach was on the sidelines throwing his clipboard on the ground screaming about how they were all losers as he stuffed a whole protein bar down his throat. Finn hung his head down in shame as he headed toward the locker room to take care of his little problem as the stadium filled with McKinley fans booed him away._

His eyes squinted and his mouth dropped a little as he looked at Santana, wondering why she was bringing up one of the most humiliating moments of his life. He noticed that Tina chick had taken the opportunity to run off, not wanting to be around in case Santana was looking for a new target.

Finn didn't know what to say to the girl. He had apologized to the team and bought them beers for most of the summer, hoping that they were all cool once again. Hell, last week Puck started talking to him again, saying that he couldn't stay mad at his number wah bro. They sat all Saturday in their boxers demolishing guys online while playing Call of Duty and getting drunk, that had to have meant something. Just as he was about to ask Santana what her problem is, a short brunette with a high ponytail came into his line of sight and his mouth began to water.

The girl, like her teammates had a big gulp cup wrapped around her hand and the halls around them disappeared. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest and he began to feel like that time he accidentally drank one of Puck's speciality drinks. It was like she was slowly gliding down the hall, strutting just for him. A sliver of her firm yet soft tanned stomach that he had spotted so many times when she would cheer at the games made a short appearance before her WHMS red and white cheer top covered it back up the best part about her was her legs. Those long, tanned legs that go on for days. It was a surprising to him, seeing that the girl barely came up to his waist. She gave him a tiny smile and what he thought was a wink. Finn hadn't even noticed that she had stopped right in front of him, as Santana and Brittany took their places on either side of her. He hadn't even noticed that she stopped right in front of him or that she had been talking to him. He was too busy imagining the things he would to to those wonderfully pouty lips of hers...

Finn opens his eyes as he realizes that her lips were not moving anymore and that she was instead looking at him, like she was bored with a hand on her hip. Santana was rolling her eyes and mumbling something in Spanish and Brittany was talking about baby ducks with the tall, brunette cheerio. He squinted his eyes and tried to keep his focus on the girl of his dreams. He wanted to play this smooth and get Rachel eating out of the palm of his hands.

"Hey Rach, you look really awesome today." he tells her. She gives him her megawatt Rachel Berry sign. That has to be a good sign, right? He decides that maybe if he compliments her on something, it would get him somewhere with Rachel. Finn leans down a little towards her hair and takes a big whiff of it. She smells like strawberries and honey, which smelled kind of nice.

"Your hair smells nice too." he tells her as he shifts on one of his feet and readjusts the strap of his backpack. Rachel takes a couple of steps back away from him as a look of confusion crosses her face.

"Uh, thanks Finn. You, uh, look rather- dashing as well." Rachel said awkwardly, taking a step away from the dopey grinning quarterback. She looks over at Santana, who scowls and nods her head over into the direction of her home room. Rachel nods back and gives the quarterback a hesitant smile.

"Well, it was nice seeing you again Finn." Rachel says abruptly. "Hope your summer was well and I'll see you at lunch, maybe?"

Finn's smile gets bigger and he nods his head like an overly excited child.

The head cheerio takes this as an opportunity to leave. As she does, she can't help but feel a little sorry for the unsuspecting quarterback for what is about to happen to him. She had tried to talk Santana and the others out of it, feeling that their punishment was a little cruel and unusual. But her second in command had insisted that this is what needed to happen and that Finn needed to be made an example of. Not that Santana needed Rachel's permission anyway, because she was going to do what she wanted to do regardless.

As Rachel walks away, Finn feels himself getting dizzy again. He watched as the head cheerleader gracefully walk away from him. He especially paid attention to the way her skirt swiveled from one side of her awesome red spandex to the next. He hadn't noticed that Santana had revealed her big cup or the other guys on the team steadfast approaching him with identical cups. It wasn't until Karofsky and Azmio stepped into his line of vision that he was broken out of his love spell.

Finn blinks a couple of times before he gives his two friends his trademark sideways smirk. He holds his hand in the air, waiting to greet his running and line backer, as he always had, only to realize he was being left to hang out to dry. He looks at the two letterman jacket clad boys, that he thought were his friends confused.

"Hey guys?" Finn says confused.

"Hudson." the football players say in unison. The quarterback looks down to see that the two boys had their hands behind their backs.

"I thought I wouldn't be seeing you guys until practice this afternoon." Finn said. "Unless coach Tanaka canceled it or something."

"Coach is no longer with the team, Hudson." Karofsky said gruffly.

"That sucks. What happened to him?" Finn said sympathetically. The quarterback had always had a fondness for the former football coach, at least when he wasn't yelling and swearing at him from the stands. He had been a good guy overall and the coach had always felt like the older brother he didn't have. He'll always remember this gem of advice that the former Titans coach taught him. When everything in life kicks you down and stuff, drink a protein shake and move on.

"Had a breakdown in the middle of practice, when his fiancee told him that he was leaving him for the pool boy." Azimo tells him.

From the corner of his vision, he sees his mohawked best friend step into his line of sight. He was wearing a pair of black slacks, a nice white blouse and black tie, not something that he was used to seeing his best friend in. Finn looks over at his ear and sees that the ear ring that coach made him remove at the beginning of the season was looped proudly into his ear.

"And she keyed the coach's car after I kicked her to the curb." Puck says with a victorious smirk on his face. "Then coach used one of the baseball team's bats and started swinging it and chasing after me when I tried to apologize. Lucky for me, the principal and his replacement walk into the stadium. It took them two hours and the Lima PD dudes tasing him before they subdued him. "

"Dude." Finn chuckles. "That is awesome. Wish I could have been there to see that."

"You so should have been."Puck laughs as he takes a step towards the clueless quarterback. "But don't worry bro I wouldn't leave coach hanging like that. I'm going to be a character witness for his sentencing this morning. In fact, I'm supposed to be there in five minutes."

Karofsky and Azimo glare over at Puck, who shrugs his shoulder and steps away from his best friend. Santana then takes the opportunity to bogart her way through the two imposing jocks and steps in between them.

"Larry and Moe, will you two stop beating around the bush and tell Curly here the good news so I can go?" Santana says impatiently. "I've got to get my mack on before practice starts. So I would appreciate it if we could hurry this along? Or so help me, I will make sure I stuff jock straps in your respective lockers for the next year?"

Santana looks over to find Brittany winking at her, with a little leer of her own.

"Tell me what?" Finn asks, taking a step away from his so called friends. "What the hell is going here?"

"While you were off playing Call of Duty in your underwear for the summer, do you know what the rest of the team's been doing?" Karofsky asks with a growl. Seeing the quarterback's mouth widen a little, the linebacker rolls his eyes at him. "We were looking through new plays, conditioning in the gym _every day_. My dad even convinced the team to start doing yoga in order to deal with the inner tensions that the team was experiencing. Yoga, Hudson! That's a big deal."

"Damn right it is!" Azimo said as he pulled on the loosing material of his yoga pants. "I've got a mat, pants and everything! And it's not even that bad, once you get past these weird looking ass pants!"

"Uh good for you guys?" Finn said, still confused as to what they were trying to say.

"During our team yoga sessions, we came to an epiphany of sorts." Karofsky said, crossing his arms defensively. "We were all still reeling from that State game loss and morale was lower than it'd ever been. We were trying to figure out how it is that a team with our overall stats-"

"Which happened to be the best on record for McKinley!" Azimo adds gruffly.

"Lost a game that we should have won with our arms tied behind our backs." Karofsky continues on. "But during our tryouts for the team, we came to an epiphany."

"Our quarterback sucks ass and we've been following him for too long and getting nowhere!" Azimo adds, moving a step closer to Finn.

Finn feels the heat come to his cheeks as he tries to look for an escape, anywhere that will take him away from here. When he looks over at the lockers across the way, he sees that punk freak Quinn Fabray with her head down, reading a book. He honestly thought that she may have been sleeping or strung out on something, like everyone thinks she is.

The quarterback reluctantly looks back over towards the angry mob and gulps.

"Come on guys, we'll be okay." Finn begs them. "I've been working out and running really hard the last couple of weeks and working on my 'll win this year, I guarantee it."

"We know, Hudson." Karofsky said with a rueful smile. "Because the new coach said our new quarterback is really good."

Finn widens his eyes in shock. They were going to give his spot to some new kid after he's had it for three years? How could they do this to him, not when he is so convinced that this'll be his best year.

"What?"

"What they are taking way too damn long to say is-" Santana interrupts, revealing the slushy cup in her hands. "that you're fired. Done. Finished. You are no longer this sad, excuse of a school's quarterback."

Santana looks over to Azimo and cringes. "BTW Azimo, you should never, under any circumstances wear _those _pants in public, ever again. Nobody needs to be subjected to your junk immediately after breakfast."

Azimo takes a step back and hides himself a little at the cheerleader's criticism. While a shocked Finn Hudson sputters for something to say.

"But don't feel bad Hudson, we wouldn't knock you off your throne without a parting gift." Santana says with a faux innocence as she steps away from the unsuspecting former jock. "Now!"

Before he could move out of the way, Finn finds himself being sprayed in several different directions. His shirt becomes chilly and he feels the stinging cold shoot down his spine. The former jock has to fight the urge to not get on his knees and kneel at the shock of the slushy. He feels like he is being stabbed slowly with several different needles all being stuck into his body at the same time as the ice chips assault his every sense. But nothing can top the betrayal and humiliation he feels at the actions of his former friends. Finn doesn't have the hindsight to shut his eyes until the last drop of slushy hits his cheek.

When it's over, the former jock does not open his eyes or move an inch from his position in the hallway. He only hears the snickering of Santana and her companion, Brittany and Azimo asking Karofsky about whether or not Santana was right about the pants. He thinks he hears a muffled apology from Puck and a promise to bring some pizza and beers to Finn's place when he was done with court.

After what feels like forever and he thinks that the crowd is gone, Finn hesitantly opens his eyes. The sight that greets him is a pink haired Quinn, who sticks a piece of paper in the book that she was reading. She pushes herself off the locker and starts to walk away. Before she does, the former blond, at least that's what her rumored hair color was, raises an eyebrow at him quizzically.

"You look kind of sticky there Hudson." Quinn deadpans. "More so than your usual." She smirks a little and then walks away.

He just lost his beloved spot on the football team and he was officially now on the shit end of the high school hierarchy. And now he was getting shit from the school freak?

As the remnants of the slushy rainbow rinse dripped onto the floor and the final homeroom bell sounded, Finn couldn't help think that his plans for the 'Year of Finn Hudson' were down the tubes with his football career at McKinley High School.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his soggy schedule to see who his home room teacher was. Maybe he could change and puppy dog eye his way into getting excused for the day. Unfortunately, fate had not been on his side, once again, as he read off the name of said teacher.

Sylvester, S.

This was gonna be Finn Hudson's worst year ever. And to think twenty minutes ago, he had such high hopes for the year. Guess this is what his mom was talking about when she talks to him about the real world. It definitely wasn't the reality tv show with all those hot chicks and free booze.

* * *

**Hi everyone. I started this story two years ago and I never got around to working on it until now. And according to my outline, this is the only chapter where the story will be told from Finn's POV. Don't know how often I'll be able to update this, but I'll see what I can do. Hope you all enjoy this new one. As always, comments, criticism and feedback is always appreciated.**

**Until next time...**


	2. The Plan

The day had not gotten better for the former quarterback by the time lunch rolled around. Word had traveled fast of how his so called friends all turned on him and by the time lunch came around, all of McKinley high had heard about or had a friend of a friend who witnessed one of the most humiliating moments of his life. Finn Hudson had gone from school hero to school joke in less than five hours time.

It hadn't sunk in for the quarterback at how badly his reputation had been damaged until this very moment. He thought that he would be able to get through the day with his head held high and at least get through the rest of the day before he would fake an illness for the rest of the week or until the school found someone else to pick on. He would use the fake vomit that his former best friend used last year at Santana's annual beginning of the year party for good measure. Unfortunately for him, by the time he reached the football player's locker room, only to find that his spare clothes weren't anywhere to be found, that plan flew out the window. He had to go to the lost and found bin to get something to wear before his first period class. What he found is the reason why he wished the Hellmouth thing was real and it would hurry up and swallow him whole already.

I am wearing plaid, skinny jeans that were way too tight and fit too little for his my awkwardly tall frame. Along with a very large and very pink Hello Kitty sweater with cat ears attached to the hood. I've had to deal with the loud snickers and pointed stares from my classmates all day long and for the last two hours, for some reason, people have been kicking me and throwing spit balls at my head, which is less fun when you're on the receiving end of it. I had hoped that I would get some relief from the teasing and torment of my classmates, but unfortunately, that just wasn't in the cards for him me today.

When I get to the student lot, my front two car tires were sitting on the ground. I already knew who was responsible for this because this was something that me and the guys did last year to that creepy geek Jacob Ben Israel after he wrote an article criticizing my performance in one of the games. I tried not to dwell on the fact that I was now on the same level as someone like Jacob Ben Israel because I probably would have thrown myself in the dumpster and stayed in there until either the end of school or the garbage truck guys come and pick up the can.

I called my mom, who called her new boyfriend Burt, and talked him into to picking up my hunk of junk station wagon from the school. Unfortunately, mom called back to tell me that today was the day that everyone in Lima's cars decide to stop working and the shop would be packed all day. I walked back into the school with my head down and the last bit of my pride and dignity in shambles.

It only took my former friends and teammates, as well as the school that once worshiped the ground that I walked on five hours to break me. There must be some sort of record for that kind of rock bottom. One of the lunch ladies even looked at me sympathetically because my shoes squished down the line with my tray. She even gave me an extra cup of jello, but said nothing to me otherwise. I gave her a half smile as I started to feel bad about egging her house the night before Halloween with my jock friends the year before.

Finn goes from one opening space at the table to the next, trying to find a place to sit. But everywhere he goes, there is either a student, who magically appears behind him and shoves him out of the way or they move their backpack or other bags, glaring at him to back off. His personal favorite is when the people at the table scoot closer together, making sure that there is no room for the former quarterback to squeeze in.

After the eleventh table in a row to pull the backpack move, Finn chances a glance over towards the sacred middle table, where the football players and cheerios held court during lunch where his former throne used to be. It all seemed to happen so slowly in Finn's mind, when in reality it as probably only a couple of minutes.

Karofsky and Azimo, were flanked on either side of this blond kid who looked to be a couple of feet shorter than him. A few strands of his blond hair, which came down all the way to his flappy ears, fell into his face. Finn's eyes widen when he took notice of the kids lips were bigger than his entire face. At last, the former quarterback's eyes fell on the red and white letterman jacket the new kid was sporting, whose sleeve nearly covered his entire hand. He looked where the left inside breast pocket could be and noticed that the cursive, white stitching of his name that once proudly bared his name, was nowhere to be found. What remained though were the few stray, white strings that belonged to the previous owner.

This kid was telling a dumb story, motioning animatedly all around him and the whole table erupted into rioting roars around them. Karofsky lightly punched the new kid in his arm with a grin. While Azimo adds something to whatever the new kid was saying and slapped him on his shoulder blade.

To add salt to the wound, Rachel, with Santana and Brittany on both sides of her, suddenly walk up to where the new kid was sitting, with all of the other players eyes on them. The head cheerio captain smiles brightly at him as she hands him the care basket that the cheerios put together for the quarterback every year as a good luck charm of sorts for the seasons. There were various snacks, probably the vegan cookie crap that Rachel tried to get him to eat last year. Along with a couple of bottles of Gatorade, energy shots, a twenty dollar gift certificate to Breadstix, Sylvester's chocolate-not really chocolate looking homemade protein shakes that tasted like rocks, and a large, hand sewn 'C' for his uniform. Rachel stands on the tip toes of her white Keds for a moment, before she and her second and third in command walk away. The new kid gives her a goofy smile while a couple of guys at the table stand up and congratulate him, before going back to their conversation.

The whole time that this was happening, the only thought that ran through Finn's mind was how it should have been him. Not this new kid that comes from Canada or Nebraska or where ever the rumor mill from homeroom said that he was from. It should be _Finn Hudson _being worshiped and praised by homeroom instead of being McKinley's biggest joke! Rachel should be the one presenting him with his 'C', and not this loser.

He glares at the new kid one more time before stomping away.

After ten more minutes of being subtly tripped and whispered about as he passed, he finds an empty table with one of the last people he expected to see, his former best friend.

Puck, who is wearing his letterman like all of the other football players, was facing away from Finn and had his arm wrapped around a cute, perky, freshmen cheerio. She was a red head, who had a nice smile and whose sparkling blue eyes swooned whenever Puck got really close to her ear. He subtly places his arm around her tiny shoulders and pulls her in close.

It feels like there's steam coming out of my ears and my face turns beat red as I stomp over to the table.

The former quarterback slams his tray down with such force that he briefly caused the seat to shake slightly.

Puck turns around and glares at the idiot who interrupted his action. When he realizes its his best friend, the mohawked football player's glare softens.

"Sup bro." Puck says casually as he takes his arm off of the freshmen girl.

She looks at him with a pout. The mohawked football player gives her his trademark smirk and pulls her in for a kiss. What started out as a small parting kiss quickly turns into a five minute make out session between the running back and the young freshmen.

Finn glares at the pair, waiting for either one of them to come up for air. After ten minutes or so of watching his best friend make out with the cheerio, certain parts of the former quarterback started to feel uncomfortable and impatient. So he coughs abruptly at the couple, who reluctantly break apart from each other.

The cheerio briefly glares at the former quarterback and then turns to Puck and gives him a sweet smile.

"I'll see you later, _Puck_." the cheerio says as she gives the running back a quick peck.

"You will babe." Puck says flirtatiously, with his trademark smirk. "You definitely will."

The freshmen cheerio huffs at Finn one last time before she marches over to the Cheerios table.

As soon as he was sure the girl was gone, Puck turns in his seat and back to his red tray with the mushy week old mash potatoes that someone, somewhere, thought was acceptable for them to eat. He picks up his fork and cuts into the loaf as if nothing had happened and completely ignores the glare he's getting from the former quarterback.

"What the hell was that?" Finn screeches, his voice going up an octave.

Puck looks up at his friend curiously, with a mouthful of meatloaf puffing up his cheeks. Finn rolls his eyes and glares at the running back, who ends up swallowing his meatloaf a couple of seconds later.

"I know that it's been a while for you and I sympathize dude-" the mohawked boy says pointing in the direction of the departed cheerio. " but that was me making out with a cheerio two grades below me. Who doesn't know that I'm also screwing her best friend and mentor on the side."

"No you dumbass." he says as he slams his hand on his tray. Finn has never wanted to punch Puck, to activate whatever brain cells the running back may have left, more than he wanted to now. "I'm talking about this morning? You know with Karofsky and the slushy action with the cheerios."

The runningback's eyes widen and shrugs his shoulders a couple of seconds later. "Oh yeah, that was Karofsky's idea. I just bought the slushies and went along with it."

"But why dude? You're supposed to be my best friend? My brother?" Finn expresses frantically. "We took a blood oath Puckerman saying that we would watch each others backs no matter what!"

A few of the kids around them turn their heads at the former quarterback's hysterics. Their heads turned back in the direction that they were looking in just as quickly, thanks to the death glare the running back was sending them.

"Could you keep it down Hudson!" Puckerman whispers loudly. "I don't need people thinking I have herpes because of that shit!"

Finn takes a minute to calm down and collect himself before he started crying in the middle of the cafeteria. Wouldn't it be swell to have the McKinley study body be given more ammunition to make fun of him with. He really hated being the new school loser.

"You were supposed to have my back man and you didn't" Finn pouts.

"Hey, I had your damn back Hudson!More times than I should have!" Puck says angrily as he throws his fork on the tray. "I had it all summer, making excuse after excuse for your ass to Beiste why you weren't at practice busting your ass like the rest of us, even though I knew you were just sitting on your fat ass feeling sorry for yourself and playing Call of Duty all damn day! I had your back when the guys wanted to egg and do shit knows what else to your house! I had to go into my secret stash and get them drunk enough to forget about trashing your place! I had your back when Karofsky wanted to dump you in a dumpster full of last year's surprise meat that they jacked from the fridge and convinced them to use slushies instead! So yeah Hudson, I've been a terrible friend and never had your damn back!"

Puck looks away from him angrily and starts eating his meatloaf with his fingers instead.

I don't say anything more for a while, feeling guilty for jumping down my best friend's throat. It wasn't Puck's fault that the new kid has virtually replaced him and regulated him to the status of loser. Hell, he couldn't even blame the kid from Tennessee for taking his spot. The only person he had to blame was himself from his fall from his pedestal.

It was my fault for getting distracted by that cheerleader at Carmel at the worst possible moment. I didn't go to practice like I was supposed to and selfishly made my best friend cover for him me. Everything was my fault and I have to find a way to fix it all. _And it starts with apologizing to Puck_.

"I'm sorry Puck." I apologize, once I see that he is done with his meatloaf. "You're right, you have had my back through this entire thing. And I shouldn't take my shit out on you."

Puck rolls his eyes and starts eating his mash potatoes. "It's all good. Just don't do it again or we're gonna have some serious issues."

Finn runs his fingers through his hair and sighs. "What the hell am I gonna do? I've only been a loser for one day and it's tearing me apart."

"Come on dude." Puck says with a mouthful of mash potoates. "It can't be that bad?"

"They slashed my tires!" Finn says frustrated as he recounts his morning hell. " After you guys slushed me, Karofsky or whoever must have taken my clothes from my locker-"

"Yeah, Azimo took them down into the school incinerator and had them burned." Puck adds, taking a breather from his lunch. "He also took your letterman down there and gym bag which smelled worst than my grandma's diaper by the way."

Finn gapes at his best friend, hoping that what he was saying was somehow not true. "No way-"

"Way man." Puck says apologetically. " He and Ted told anyone who would listen about how they burned the 'fake ass quarterback's' jersey before practice."

Finn covers his head with his hands, feeling as if he were about to cry at the loss of his jersey. I had worked hard to wear the number five jersey at McKinley, harder than he had that math test he had to pass in order to graduate middle school. I failed that test ten times before I finally got it right and before the teacher could give him me the extra bonus points I would need to pass, just for spelling my name right.

Hearing what the guys, my so called former friends were doing to my jersey, made me want to go up to each and every one of them and kick their ass. But I have neither the coordination nor the girth to take on guys as big as Karofsky or Azimo. So the only thing I could do was sit there and cry. But not in front of the school or Puck.

"What the hell am I gonna do Puck?" Finn whines to his best friend. "They've slashed the tires to my car and the whole school thinks I'm a joke! They've even got me wearing skinny jeans and 'Hello Kitty! Hello Kitty, dude!"

Puck places his mash potatoes down and bends down to look at his friend's outfit. Sure enough, he sees the tight skinny jeans that look like they're squeezing the life out of his thighs. He looks back up again to find the 'Hello Kitty' sweatshirt hanging loosely on his arms. The running back was sure if the former quarterback turned around, he would see that the pink hoodie had cat ears on the hood, just like his sisters.

Finn watches the running back bite down on his lip really hard and he had his . He's got to give the running back points for restraining himself for as long as he is. If the tables were turned, Finn was pretty sure he would have started laughing the Puck walked into the cafeteria.

At least that's something the old and popular Finn would have done.

"Just do it already Puckerman." Finn huffs, watching his best friend who had his head down as the rest of his body begins to shake. "Everybody else already has."

Puck raises his head and cackles so loud that nearly half of the cafeteria stops whatever they're doing and stares in their direction.

"Could you cut it out already, people are starting to stare." Finn grunts after a while as he sinks down into his seat to avoid any and all eye contact with the rest of the cafeteria.

"Sorry dude-" Puck chortles, gaining a little bit of control of himself. "But what the fuck were you thinking grabbing that? Out of all of the shit they have in the shitty lost and found bin, you would grab a fucking Hello Kitty sweatshirt?"

"And skinny jeans. But I think they were meant for girls cause my junk feels a little tight." Finn whispers annoyed.

Brown eyes widen disbelievingly and grins as he immediately ducks his head underneath to confirm that what he was saying was true. And just his luck, he was wearing too tight skinny jeans that looked like they were seconds away from busting.

The running back brings his head back up to face his humiliated friend again and his cackling starts up again.

Finn watches his now former best friend laugh until he is literally bent over the lunch bench, clutching his stomach, repeatedly saying something about skinny jeans and 'hello kitty'. He knew that it was a mistake going to the running back with his problems with his former teammates. For all he knew, Puckerman got a big kick out of seeing him kicked off of his throne and taken down a notch like the rest of the guys did.

Puck slams his head against the tray, trying to do his best to regain the little composure he had left. But one more long look at the pants that looked like they were about to burst open any second. The running back's face started to turn a light shade of red as he bites down on his bottom lip and looks away.

Finn had never wanted to punch his best friend more than he did in that moment. Okay, maybe not more than that one time at football camp, involving him waking up in the middle of the lake as nude as the day he was born and with no recollection of how he got there. But that was another story for another day.

Anyways where was I? Oh yeah. I wanted to punch Puck in the face.

"Dammit hurry up and get it out already!" Finn huffs. "It's not that funny."

Puckerman lets out another belly busting laugh laugh as he continues to make fun of his jeans. This time, he's howling loudly and he doesn't really seem to care all that much that everyone is watching them. Even his new replacement is looking at him, blue eyes wondering if there was something going on with his teammate.

I roll my eyes and huff at him, wishing that I could throw the Bieber wannabe into the dumpster for his fake concern. I couldn't help but think how punch able this kids' face is. With his trouty lips and puppy dog eyes pretending to give a crap. It made him sick to see his former friends eating up this kid's act. There had to be something he could do to take this kid down a peg?

First, he had to wait for chuckles to stop laughing. So Finn takes Puck's tray and helps himself to his best friend's, who is currently curled up on the floor, meatloaf. It's not like Puck is going to be eating any of it anytime soon.

* * *

Fifteen minutes and three fourths of Puck's meatloaf and all of his mashed potatoes later and the big dofus has finally stopped laughing. He's on the floor with his hands on his stomach, wheezing and panting as if he had just gotten done with an intense two a day. When I look down, he has a big goofy smirk on his face and a dazed, glazed over look in his eyes. It's the same one that I get when I get a whiff of Rachel's perfume when she walks by or whenever they have fresh donuts in the cafeteria for breakfast on Mondays.

I cut into the meatloaf and stuff another big piece in my mouth and look down at him. I toss the fork on the tray and cross my arms. Puck turns his head and looks up at me.

"Skinny jeans... junk...Hello Kitty." Puck mutters gleefully.

"What the hell am I gonna do Puck?" Finn whines petulantly. " The school days not over yet and I already can't take all of this! I need to get my spot back on the team!"

" I would tell you to fight for your stop and everything, but Coach is never gonna get rid of Evans. And personally, I don't think she should. Evans is better than damn good and he's just what the program needs. At least he's not passing the ball to the other team or running out on the game in the middle of it."

"I'm just as good as Evans is?" Finn asks defensively. "I am, am I?"

"Finn, you will be my best friend and brother from another mother to the very end, but no you were never a good quarterback. The only reason Coach T made you the quarterback is because he was trying to get into your mom's pants."

"That's not true." Finn says weakly.

Puck sits up from his spot and looks at Finn disbelievingly. " Dude when you were our quarterback, most of the people who bothered to attend our games wanted to know in advance whether or not you were playing in the game before they bought their tickets. Our highest attended game happened after Lopez shoved her tongue down your throat and purposefully gave you mono, which you thought was the flu."

"I thought that they wanted to know because they wanted to see me play." Finn says weakly as his shoulders slumped. He knew that he had a few learning curves to get through before he would be Tom Brady good. But he didn't think he was as bad as Puck is saying he was. He really thought he was getting better and only hitting his stride in the district championship game if it weren't for the little incident. "And Lopez had mono?"

"You mean to tell me you didn't see the ticket booth signs with your name and picture plastered all over it?" Puck asks.

"I thought it was for autographs after the game." Finn mumbles into his chest.

"Carmel renamed their homecoming day and game Finn Hudson day." the running back adds unhelpfully.

"Really? I thought everyone there just liked me." Finn says horrified.

"They liked you because they were guaranteed an easy win before they have to play the kids at the deaf school." Puck reveals.

I wanted to place my hands over my ears,desperately wanting to believe that Puck was lying. I can't be that terrible, there's no way. Coach T told him that he had all of the potential in the world,

Then again, I'm pretty sure Coach T was loaded at the time. He happened to be giving his football coach a ride back from the bar when the other players turned him down. Coach T also cried about his parents hating his guts and how he ate to cope with the fact that his best friend, the Spanish teacher, stole his fiancee, the guidance counselor, from him.

_God, I am such an idiot._

Not wanting to hear anymore, he shakes his head and goes back to the topic at hand.

"Well how the hell am I going to get my popularity back, if I don't have football?"

"You could try track and field?" Puck suggests. "You certainly have the calves for it judging by the way they look in your skinny jeans."

"Could you lay off the god damn skinny jeans for one second and help me focus!" Finn says angrily. "And there's no way I'm running in track. I could barely keep up with the suicide drills in football."

"You could always sleep with a cheerio. That always seems to work." Puck suggests.

"Not just one cheerio-" Finn says dreamily.

Finn's eyes widen, his head begins to hurt and he's pretty sure there's a big bright led light bulb above it. He looks away from the running back and his eyes turn in the direction of the cheerios table. His eyes focus to the center of the group of a dozen or so girls, where Rachel their leader is currently holding court. The brunette tilts her head back and is politely laughing at something one of the girls was saying. She was sitting next to her shadow and her second in command head bitch in charge Santana, who was seemingly in her own world with Brittany. The happy blond was leaning over her counterpart and excitedly motioning towards the head cheerio. But he didn't care about her as much as he cared about the person she was talking to.

He watches Rachel gracefully place the tip of the eco-friendly water bottle to her lips. He was pretty sure that it contained the nasty gunk that Sylvester makes the cheerios drink to stay skinny or something.

His eyes begin to glaze over and he can't believe that Rachel could even make drinking that nasty stuff look so classy and sexy.

A smile forms on his face as he remembers what Puck just said.

"You're right man, one just won't do." Puck agrees. "Two cheerios. Maybe three. As much as I respect you bro, I think you would lose your shit if you had to handle for of those girls at the same time-"

"No you dumbass. I'm not gonna have a threesome or whatever the hell you were saying." Finn dismisses. "I'm going to sleep with Rachel."

Puck stares at him inquisitively. "I'm sorry dude but I think I might have misheard you. Did you say you were going to try to sleep with Rachel Berry, as in head cheerio in charge Rachel Berry? That one?"

"Yeah!" Finn says excitedly. "It's the perfect plan. I talk to her, get to know her and then she'll fall for me. We become boyfriend and girlfriend and I do everything that she tells me to do." The former quarterback leans over to where Puck is conspiratorially. "I get all romantic shit for her and show her exactly what kind of guy I am and by the time prom rolls around, she'll be begging for me sleep with her. Although I think I'll have my popularity back before I get her to sleep with me, so getting to sleep with my dream girl will just be a bonus."

Puck gets up from his spot on the ground and sits back down on the bench.

"That's a great fantasy plan, Hudson, really it is." Puck chuckles. "And for a second, I almost believed all the crazy shit you were saying."

"It's not crazy!" Finn defends himself. Yeah sure, it sounds unrealistic on paper, but when he tells Puck all of the details, he's sure that the running back will be on board afterward.

Puck leans into Finn, making sure that the former quarterback is the only one who could hear him.

"It kind of is." he murmurs quietly. " Rachel doesn't give you the kind of time of day to where she would even entertain the idea of falling in love with you. The only reason why she gave you any face time is because you were the quarterback."

Puck did have a point. Finn can't remember any prolonged conversations that he's had with the beautiful brunette. And Rachel was nice to everyone she comes into contact with, despite the fact that she's the head cheerio. It was another thing that made Rachel great. Even when he would drool all over her as she said her obligatory hellos, the cheerio always had a way of making you feel like you were the only person in the room.

"I could get one of the cheerios to put in a good word for me to Rachel-"

Puck scoffs. "Good luck with that. When she devil Lopez finds out that you're trying to get one of her minions to do that, she'll slushy you ten times worse than she did this morning and tell Rachel all about it. I'm sure they'll get a good laugh out of that."

Puck's right. If he manage to sweet talk one of the cheerios into doing this small favor for him, Lopez would notice it automatically and get the poor girl to tell her his plan. Then she would do everything in her power to bury him all the way on the other side of Lima Heights adjacent. But not before she humiliated him at school first.

He looks at his tray pensively for a few moments and then snaps his fingers.

"Isn't Rach in the school's Glee club?" Finn points out. "Nude erections? New infections?"

"New directions." Puck answers. " And you don't know any of the losers in there."

Finn feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and a chill run down his spine. Something tells him to turn around in that moment and look at the doors of the cafeteria. It must have been his ESPN or something at work.

He does what his gut tells him to do, just in time to see the pink haired punk, with her over-sized, black beanie slouched slightly to the left,burst through its doors. With her fishnet stockings and Doc Marten combat boots, she walks through the door, as if she owned the cafeteria. The students around her make it a point to quickly move out of her way and avoid touching her. They almost seemed to part like the Red Sea whenever Quinn Fabray was around.

Which was amazing and kind of scary to since the only other person in the school who was capable of doing that was Rachel Berry herself.

A patent scowl on her face, Finn thinks that there may have been one point in time where Quinn was actually hot and not scary hot. With her sharp cheek bones and pouty lips, which were currently clad in hot pink lipstick, it would be hard not to find Quinn hot. She would be the total package if she hadn't looked like she hopped in a time machine back to 1993, with the red and blue flannel get up that she was wearing with her black tank top and school girl skirt.

Quinn has only been a fixture in the hallways of McKinley for a year, but with her unique look and the mysterious circumstances about why she was pulled out of Carmel the second week of her freshmen year and home schooled the rest of the year before coming to McKinley. Some people say that she got into a fight with this one kid at Carmel and ended up putting him in a coma. Other people think that she had a mental breakdown and murdered both of her parents. Some people thought she was a vampire who could walk in the day time. Some think that she burned down the chemistry lab and they threatened to expel her if she didn't leave voluntarily. Although, with the way that he notices how she plays with her lighter all the time, he wouldn't be surprised if there was some truth to that rumor.

Whatever the reason why she was brought her, it didn't matter. Because the princess of punk was a social pariah all the same. She was a constant target for the cheerios, with the exception of course being Rachel, and one of Santana's playthings. Not a day goes by that Rachel's second in command does not make fun of the new student. She picks apart everything from her clothes to her hair to her parents, which almost caused the throw down of the century. Too bad Mr. Schue had to be a spoil sport and break it up.

But the most important thing about Quinn, especially as it pertained to his own cause, was that Quinn had friends who were in Glee club. And those friends saw Rachel on a daily basis.

He watches the punk girl plop her black messenger bag down, right next to the space that the school's other reject Tina Cohen Chang was currently eating her homemade turkey sandwich, and takes the seat next to her. They exchange a brief greeting and then Quinn reaches into her bag and pulls out some sort of faded notebook and a black bag.

"Isn't Quinn Fabray friends with the Gleeks?" Finn asks while keeping his eyes on the punk girl.

"Last I checked, she was one of those losers or at least designs the backgrounds for them and shit, why-" Puck stop and his eyes widen in panic as he realizes what his dumbass best friend was asking. "No fucking way dude! Do you have some sort of death wish or something? That's _Quinn Fabray_, the chick who killed her parents and made them into soup! What the fuck do you think she's going to do to you if you even entertain the idea of asking her for anything, let alone talking to her?"

"I didn't realize you were so afraid of Fabray?" Finn asks amused.

"Fuck no! I'm not afraid of some chick!" Puck says defensively. " As soon as she walked into the room, my cooked green beans turned two shades darker. Look at these." He lifts his tray to show Finn the beans and the former quarterback abruptly pushes it back down. "All I'm saying is that I would not fuck around with that chick. The last time I messed with her, I almost had to get snipped because she kicked my balls so hard."

"You asked her if you wanted to film a 'special movie' in the boys locker room while all the other guys watched." Finn points out. "You kind of had it coming."

Finn started talking again, not giving Puck the chance to say anything more.

"With the right incentive, I'm sure I could get Fabray to help me out. Who knows, I might get to know her a little and she won't be as bad as you-"

"And the rest of Lima-" Puck mutters sarcastically.

Finn glares at the running back. "Say she is. Like it or not, I need her or one of those other glee club losers to help me talk to Rachel. I don't have many other options left man, what do you want me to do?"

Puck sighs and abandons his tray completely. "It would be nice if you found a hobby around school that doesn't make you sound like a future stalker or serial killer, but whatever. If you feel like this crazy scheme is something that you have to do, I'm behind you two hundred percent. Say the word and I'll help you and Lilith win over Berry, if you can get her to help you that is."

Finn smiles gratefully at his best friend and pats his arm. Puck may be a complete and total asshole at times, but when his back is in the corner, the running back is always covering it. Considering all that he has been through in the last four hours, having Puck in his corner will probably be the only bright spot in this terrible day.

"Thanks man. I appreciate it."

"No problem." Puck brushes off nonchalantly, along with the ex quarterback's hand. "Now, what's the plan for how you're going to approach Elvira?"

Finn shrugs his shoulders, not quite sure of the answer himself. All he knew was that he had to get his plan into action soon so that it will give him enough time to pull out all the stops for Rachel.

For the rest of lunch, Puck didn't say anything else to him. The running back had become preoccupied with sexting the friend of the girl he had seen Puck with earlier, leaving Finn to his thoughts about his plan, Quinn and the beautiful brunette cheerio who was going to help him reclaim his lost popularity. And maybe even fall for him if he was lucky.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Hi everyone. Sorry about the long delay in chapters for this one. Life got a bit complicated and I just didn't have the time to get the next chapter going. But now that I have a little more free time, I can work on this one as well as my other stories.**

**This is the end of Finn's pov for now and the next chapter, we get to officially meet Quinn. The chapter will start over from the morning before school and we'll get to see a bit of her home life. It might be a while before I get that chapter up, since I am kind of rotating between updating all of my stories now, but I promise that it'll be worth the wait.**

**Thank you again for all the kind reviews, follows and favorites. They mean a lot to me and motivate me to keep updating this story.**

**Once again, all reviews are appreciated. And until next time...**

**Sincerely,**

**The Geek in Pink**


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